Trauma, Grief & Loss
At NobleTree, our approach to trauma therapy is to process the trauma on a physiological, emotional and cognitive level.
Trauma is felt and experienced in the body first and foremost. It is crucial that we find safety in our bodies in order to unpack the traumatic experience and how it affects our emotional and cognitive selves.
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+ Trauma
Trauma shows up in many forms. It can be a one-time event or a series of ongoing messages and events that happen over an extended period of time, known as complex trauma.
Trauma can be something concrete such as a death or a car accident. It can also be long-term and repeated messages or systemic experiences that compromise our safety of self-expression or our safety within ourselves.
A lot of times when people have had traumatic experiences they feel like it runs their life because it’s not organized, rather overwhelming, and at times all-consuming. Trauma causes a breakdown in the brain’s communication with itself and the body. This can often lead to feelings of distrust within ourselves, of our emotions, and our perception of reality.
Building resilience in our bodies and minds allows us to find a greater capacity to experience the wide spectrum of emotions in life without being consumed by them. We want to help you re-establish homeostasis in the body so that you can move between the various experiences of emotional reality with safety and freedom.
Think of trauma as a book with its pages strewn all about the floor. When we experience trauma and a breakdown in safety within our bodies, we can feel overcome and overwhelmed by the various elements of what we’ve experienced. Through the process of therapy for trauma, we want to put those pages back in the book, find ways to organize them in time and space, increase regulation in our bodies so that we can close the book, and put it back on the shelf.
While the trauma is not forgotten or dismissed, it’s been organized in a way that allows us to move through life without re-experiencing the painful reality of trauma over and over again in overwhelming ways.
+ Grief & Loss
Grief and loss can be complex. Your experience of grief and loss may be related to a physical death or some other change in your life that has caused disruption or pain.
We provide therapy for grief and loss not only for people who have lost a loved one to death but also for complex trauma related to loss such as traumatic health issues, loss of a community or relationship.
There is a multitude of metaphorical deaths that can cause trauma. These include the loss of a community from religious trauma or spiritual abuse, the need to separate from family and friends because of their inability to accept a part of your identity, or losing former identities that no longer fit.
Grief and loss may also feel complex and ambiguous. Maybe you’ve lost someone emotionally, experienced infidelity in a relationship, or someone has gone missing and you’re not sure if they’re still alive. With the trauma of ambiguous loss comes a lack of closure. Therapy for grief and loss can help you find peace and healing.
What we do
How We Can Help With Trauma, Grief, and Loss
Trauma therapy can help you feel a greater sense of connection to your body. A common experience after trauma is that our nervous system can have difficulty regulating or returning to a sense of homeostasis. This can cause us to feel a constant state of threat or danger.
Rather than being afraid of your body’s responses, we will support you in calming your nervous system so that it finds clarity in reacting to situations. By developing greater safety within our bodies, we are able to develop nervous system responses that keep us safe, calm, and regulated.
Learn about Our approach
+ Body-Based Work, EMDR, and Brainspotting
At NobleTree we use body-based interventions in trauma therapy to support the re-establishment of safety within yourself, your emotions, and your mind. We seek to help people find a place of security within their mind, body, and its cues, allowing them to feel greater clarity and connection.
In trauma therapy, we go through what’s known as a resourcing phase. Resourcing uses mindfulness and guided visualizations to help you build a stronger connection to your body in preparation for reprocessing traumatic events. Starting by creating safety within our bodies allows us to revisit painful experiences without getting overwhelmed.
Part of body-based therapy is the practice of Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and Brainspotting. These therapeutic approaches help target trauma’s impact on the body, emotions, and the mind. EMDR and Brainspotting are highly researched forms of trauma therapy that help you go below the cognitive understanding of a traumatic event to find healing on a body and emotional level.
+ Narrative Work
We also use narrative work in trauma therapy to help you process and express your traumatic experience. We help you find ways to integrate a narrative that feels empowering to you.
Narrative work in trauma therapy seeks to help you gain language, confidence, and clarity about what you’ve experienced and who you are now.
Using this framework, you’ll rewrite, integrate, and expand the narrative to include a position of power and resilience.
If you’ve experienced trauma, including grief and loss, contact us to book your free consultation.
We look forward to assisting you on your journey toward healing from trauma.